Defining what each OKC Thunder rookie needs to work on in 2018-19
By Noah Schulte
Where the OKC Thunder’s three rookies are likely to end up this year and what they need to improve upon to succeed.
Not every rookie is Donovan Mitchell or Jayson Tatum. It sounds obvious, but it’s worth remembering that the majority of rookies this year won’t finish with particularly fantastic numbers. Some will be valuable role players in their first year, while some will merely skate by as they adjust to NBA life and even more will barely leave the bench. The latter will likely be the case for the three rookies the OKC Thunder acquired this offseason.
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For a variety of reasons, it doesn’t seem very likely that Devon Hall, Hamidou Diallo, and Kevin Hervey will be big-time contributors in year one. Sure, down the line we might see one or two become valuable players for the team but, for now they have a lot of ground to make up before they can reach that level. As it stands only one has cemented a varsity contract, but that won’t guarantee playing time.
Especially on a team as deep as the Thunder. Even though they’re not necessarily the deepest team in the world, they have more than enough pieces who can compete for playing time and whom arguably deserve it more than most of the rookies here. With that said, OKC is probably going to need some of the rookies to step up this year.
Here’s how each player should start that process this year and where they’ll likely end up doing it.